Five Fantasy Books with Female Friendships at the Core

Fantasy shelves in Melbourne's Readings and Sydney's Dymocks have long leaned on lone heroes and brooding kings, but some of the most rewarding recent reads put women shoulder to shoulder as they face dragons, dynasties, curses and gods. These bonds often drive wars, topple empires and quietly reshape what readers expect from the genre. Book clubs from Brisbane to Perth are picking up titles because of the friendships inside, not the quests on the cover.

The picks below move across epic, gothic and dark-academia tones, yet share one thread: women whose loyalty to each other outweighs every obstacle stacked against them. For readers drawn to darker edges and historical weight, Bookish Valhalla has explored similar territory in why you should read between two fires for medieval horror, a haunting novel that pairs well with several titles on this list.

The Once and Future Witches and the Power of Sisterhood

Alix E. Harrow's 2020 novel folds the women's suffrage movement into a lyrical retelling of Western fairytales. The Eastwood sisters, James, Agnes and Beatrice, reunite in the town of Gilead as their mother lies dying. Each sister inherits a piece of an old magic tied to spells, charms and the forgotten names of women's power. Their bond is fragile at first, scarred by years apart and a family curse that lifts only when they speak together.

What grounds the friendship is the specificity of each sister's wound. Agnes has buried a secret for decades, James has run from love, and Beatrice has hidden her grief behind bitterness. Harrow writes the library scenes and the midnight spell circles with a reverence that has earned the book a steady readership across Australian book clubs. The covens the women build become a shadow government of their own, and the collective action resonates with this country's reading culture around women-led organising.

Fans of feminist retellings often describe this as the novel that rekindled their love of the genre after a long gap. It is also a natural entry point for readers who usually reach for literary fiction but want to try something stranger. The third sister storyline carries the momentum into a fiery final act that lingers long after the final page.

The Jasmine Throne and a Bond Forged in Exile

Tasha Suri's 2021 novel, the opening of the Burning Kingdoms trilogy, places two women at the centre of a colonial fantasy inspired by Indian history. Priya is a maid who survived a massacre and now serves a brutal princess in exile. Malini is the imprisoned sister of a tyrannical emperor, kept in a tower for her own protection and her brother's political convenience. They meet under impossible circumstances and slowly become the only sources of safety in each other's lives.

Suri writes the slow dance of menace and tenderness between them with great care, letting the friendship grow out of mutual recognition rather than attraction. Their bond is forged in a tropical, demon-haunted court full of spies and poisonous politics. The novel also asks sharp questions about empire, religion and who gets to be remembered, themes that have found a willing audience among Australian readers engaging with decolonial storytelling, including the speculative work of First Nations authors such as Claire G. Coleman.

Priya's magical training and Malini's quiet rebellion build to a fiery climax, and their friendship survives betrayals, lies and the weight of prophecy. Two sequels follow, allowing readers to travel with the women far past the first volume. Readers who enjoy the lush, queer-romantic tone of recent fantasy will find their hooks here from the opening chapter.

Sorcery of Thorns and the Librarian Who Finds Her Voice

Margaret Rogerson's 2019 standalone takes place in the Great Libraries of Aynsome, where every book is alive and some are dangerously so. Elisabeth Scrivener is a librarian-in-training raised among the books, and she has grown up believing sorcerers are monsters. Katja Quenby is one of those sorcerers, the daughter of a powerful family, and Elisabeth finds her badly injured in the stacks. Together they uncover a conspiracy that could unleash demons across the kingdom.

Their friendship is built on shared books and shared risks. Elisabeth is bookish and stubborn in a way that recalls many Australian school days spent hiding novels behind textbooks, while Katja is sharper and carries a name that has made her life harder. Rogerson writes their banter and slow trust with a light touch, and the side characters, including a junior sorcerer named Silas, balance the central bond without stealing focus.

The libraries themselves feel like cathedrals of forbidden lore, and Australian fans often mention the book alongside visits to the State Library of Victoria or the Mitchell Library in Sydney, both of which feel like living versions of Aynsome's halls. The story weaves book-magic, demon hunting and a political plot about who controls dangerous knowledge, with the friendship carrying readers through every twist.

Wilder Girls and Friendship Under Quarantine

Rory Power's 2019 debut drops readers into the Raxter School for Girls, a boarding school on a remote island cut off by a mysterious contagion called the Tox. The infection has mutated the students, turning some strange and dangerous, and the school has become a fortress. Hetty, Byatt and Reema are best friends trying to survive the patrols, the rumours and the strange new biology blooming through their bodies.

Power writes the friendship through bodies and absences, because the Tox affects each girl differently. Hetty misses an old companion with a sharpness that drives the plot, and the bond between the three becomes a way to map memory, betrayal and trust under conditions that strip away any easy comfort. The novel speaks to readers who lived through long lockdowns in cities like Brisbane and Adelaide, where isolated communities often built new rituals around shared reading lists and borrowed novels.

The novel's structure, told through Hetty's diary and short sharp chapters, makes the friendship feel urgent. There is also a strong body-horror element that earned Power a place on several Australian horror crossover lists. Bookish Valhalla has explored similar territory in horror novels on grief, where loss and bodily change collide in unsettling ways.

Crier's War and Two Women on Opposite Sides

Nina Varela's 2019 novel, the first of the War for the Risen Sea duology, places an automaton named Crier on one side of a rebellion and her mortal counterpart Ayla on the other. Crier is the heir of a family that conquered humanity generations ago, while Ayla is a rebel fighter whose family was murdered by those overlords. Ayla takes a job in Crier's household as part of a plot to assassinate her, and what begins as cold observation turns into something neither woman can easily name.

Varela treats the friendship and the slow-burn feelings between them with a restraint that suits the political stakes. Ayla's sister Kyra is also a vital presence, and the women around Ayla shape her choices as much as any romance does. The setting, with its vast palace gardens and mechanical servants, carries a baroque flavour that fans of slow, character-driven fantasy often cite as the book's biggest draw.

The sequel, Steelstriker, continues the bond under impossible odds. Readers curious about broader trends in the genre can find other perspectives through international fiction coverage, which tracks emerging voices in speculative fiction around the world. Across the duology, friendship and defiance remain bound together, and the ending carries the quiet hope that haunts the best of the books on this list.